Mutual Friends | Motzu

共通の友人

The two never talked to each other much. Tzuyu just liked to think that they sat at the same lunch table. The only reason they ever saw each other was because of mutual friends. Neither of them was particularly good a communicating with the people around them. Both from foreign backgrounds, both too shy to speak up.

Tzuyu never noticed anything special about her. Nothing she was willing to admit. Despite her immaculate silky raven hair, her obsidian eyes, her perfect pouty lips, her timid voice and her amazing body proportions, she was really nothing special at one glance. Nothing Tzuyu would say was out of the ordinary.

She would never admit to anyone that when she had first met Momo, she had been unable to speak, not because of her shy demeanour, not because she hated to meet new people, not because she was struggling with her Korean pronunciation. None of that. It was simply because she was beautiful. She wasn't just beautiful in the eye-catching, mouth-watering way, but the way that she spoke and held herself seemed to make Tzuyu... feel something.

Her self-introduction was nothing short of amusing. Jihyo had taken the girl by the hand and encouraged her to speak, but she seemed to be lost for words. Her hair, that day, had been out in its natural dark curtain. It fell about her face like a mask which reminded Tzuyu of a horror film she'd once seen.

When Momo started to speak, Tzuyu remembered being surprised by her voice.

"Hello. My name is Hirai Momo. Nice to meet you."

It was soft and low with a cute little lilt when she pronounced her words. It reminded her of herself when she had started out learning Korean. Speaking so slowly and carefully until you knew for sure that the grammar and pronunciation was right. Tzuyu was amazed to find the accent exceedingly adorable.

Tzuyu's friends introduced themselves one by one, each in their own funny way. Dahyun with her famous finger guns, Nayeon with a pretty smile, Jeongyeon in a rather uninterested way and Chaeyoung with a cute little bow.

Momo bowed slightly in return before attempting to say something else to the girls standing in front of her, but she became so flustered, that she began to speak in what Tzuyu could only perceive as Japanese. She shook her head and apologised. Jihyo patted her back gently and told her it wasn't a problem.

"Tzuyu probably understands how you feel." Momo looked up and rest her pretty eyes on the younger girl. "She's an exchange from Taiwan." Jihyo said, obviously hinting that Tzuyu should introduce herself.

This is where things got embarrassing. Tzuyu bowed and tried to speak, but her lips seemed to be sealed shut. Momo looked her up and down and in Tzuyu's memories, her eyes never left her body. This exchange often popped up in her dreams. Momo would look at Tzuyu and Tzuyu would never be able to open her mouth to say anything.

Momo integrated herself seamlessly into the group of friends. Every lunch after their lectures, all the girls would meet at the cafeteria and sit at the small table furthest from the door at the back of the room.

They would complain about classes and talk about life as they ate. Once Momo had made herself comfortable, she made herself known as a bit of a chatterbox. If nobody interjected, she could tell endless stories of her life, and about the family and friends she'd left in Japan. She also turned out to be one of those people who asks if you've finished eating something and then asks if she can eat it instead.

For some reason, Tzuyu never really felt the need, or want, to talk to her. Momo mustn't have either, because despite the fact that they had now been sitting at the same table with mutual friends in university for over a year now, neither girl had spoken to each other unless absolutely necessary.